PM Abe is dealing with controversy at home.
High standards for any Japanese negotiator.
Needs to avoid “kowtow” surrender-style agreement.

President Trump is approaching the NK Summit.
Immediate agreement with Japan might be taken as gang-up on NK.
Wants to accumulate LEVERAGE with Japan by leaving PM Abe in limbo.
Wants to accumulate LEVERAGE with NK by leaving Un uncertain yet hopeful.

BKR your absolutely right! It is breathtaking to watch these 2 REAL friends stand up for each of their country’s. Our President didn’t menace words when it came to trade. NO exemption from the tariffs on steel and aluminum for Japan. Japan sells millions of cars in the US with us only charging them 2.5% tariff. We can’t sell cars to them because of tariffs and other barriers. Our President called them out on the price tag of the deficit. $69 billion at a minimum and as high as $100 billion. He said PM Abe and his trade negotiator are tough.

PM Abe said that he would like to talk about trade in the sense that the US join TPP. He knows where our President’s stance on it yet he is continuing to push it. He talked about Japanese companies expanding recently in the US. He talked about mutual projects that would help both countries. He talked about his country’s steel being some of the best in the world and it is our loss.

Japan’s trade deficit with the US is masked by satellite export countries…Mexico, China, Vietnam, Philippines, etc. Japan’s trade surplus with the US is probably 3 times larger than what Trump mentioned when one factor’s in Japanese satellite factories in other countries exporting to the US. For example, the US has a trade deficit with the Philippines, based mainly on semiconductors. Guess who owns the factory?

After the trade friction of the 1980s, Japan wisely shifted the source of trade deficits to satellite export countries. Do you believe that China simply switched from a Mao-suited, bicycle-riding nation to an export powerhouse on their own??

While Japan builds new plants and factories in the US, how many US companies build in Japan? The sad truth is that US business has largely left the land of “trading companies.”

Thank you for that perspective! I also think Abe realizes that there will be a heavy price to pay for our President ending the North Korean conflict and getting the Japanese people home from North Korea.

I see the sale of Energy, meat which is currently not allowed and farm produce being sold in large quantities to offset the deficit and also stick it to China at the same time.

Military hardware will be a continuous sale because the Japanese will have an offensive Marine Corp going forward.

When Japan decided to form a GSDF (Japan’s Army) amphibious force they purchased a handful of Amphibious Assault Vehicles (AAV…in the picture) from the US after touring the production facilities in the US. After the media died down, Japan decided to have Mitsubishi build their own AAVs. That is a very familiar story.

Trump is fully aware of the failures of every US Administration since Nixon to fix the Japanese trade imbalance. US bases in Japan prevented any serious bargaining by the US during Cold War…bases trump trade was the old saying.

It’s very lonely at the top. Abe must feel secure with another leader who only looks to the best forum — the best stage — for his citizens to succeed without conceding to warfare. That hasn’t resulted in the best for any country over centuries.

Thread by @ThomasWictor: "(1) I don't live in "Groundhog Day," so I won't spend any more time reassuring panicky "supporters" that Trump uses strategic distraction. Here's ONE thing he distracted from: The Japanese activated their new Marine Corp […]" https://t.co/dBUW4VWzh4

“Their missions is to RETAKE OBJECTIVES that the Chinese illegally occupy.”

Huh?

Like retaking the South China Sea that was part of Imperial Japan? Just what is China illegally occupying? Who did Marshall and MacArthur give the South China Sea to in 1946?

The South China Sea was formerly Imperial Japanese territory administered from the Japanese colony of Taiwan until the end of WWII, just like Micronesia was part of Imperial Japan. America conducted combat operations in the SCS during WWII and bombed Japanese bases in the Parcel and Spratly Islands. Both territories were stripped from Japan per Potsdam after the war.

So, what nation did the US give the South China Sea to after the war? America claimed Micronesia from Japan after the war, but what about the SCS? For the Philippines? Or Dutch controlled Indonesia or French controlled Vietnam? No. The answer is simple because today both Taiwan and China still claim the SCS because the US desired China to replace Japan as the owner of the SCS in 1946. America provided China many US Navy warships in 1946 to claim those SCS islands, and China sailed to the Spratly and Paracel Islands and made the claim. DId the US object then?

I agree but I also think our President realizes we can’t be everywhere and that the Chinese are petrified of the Japanese. They are incredible fighters. This puts China in such a negative position because they can’t run roughshod in the region.

.@POTUS: "The purpose of our strike was to establish a strong deterrent against the use of banned chemical weapons. Civilized nations must join together to prevent the horrors of chemical warfare and, in fact, warfare." pic.twitter.com/QzMgD0dmA0

Howard Cosell, they live in their own little world, patting themselves on the back believing themselves to be the true patriots… they are thugs and some are just psychopaths, lusting for power. Very dark souls.

Not at @CNN@JAKETAPPER-or any MSM: They can run but can't hide from the factsEconomist/YouGov April 15-17 among Black voters "Trump Approval" iphenomenal in its implications APPROVE 17% NOT SURE 9% DISAPPROVE 74%

Jennifer, whatever your media sponsor might be, you are a total jerk to interject questions about Mueller etc. into a press conference on Japanese and U.S. mutual concerns. Go away until you learn your trade and stop embarrassing the U.S.

Of course Japan wants the TPD, which stands for Trans Pacific Dictatorship with the Asian countries and their corporation being the dictators and the USA being the victim, just like in all the other trade deals enacted by the Globullists bought politicians. Not going to happen under President Trump.

6 of 11Bilateral Trade Deals done! Japan wants TPP because it has longer time horizons and will be better for Japan…think Germany and the EU…President Trump wants Bilateral Trade so if it doesn’t work out, SAYONARA! Deal will get done with 10 to 12 year commitment! Most likely right before NK Denuclearization and hopefully Peace Deal!

Trump is the third US President to take up the “abduction” issue for Japan. Think about that. Bush, Obama, and now Trump have met the families of “abductees” and there has been no resolution. Why? We are talking about people kidnapped by the DPRK from Japan in the 1970s. Some “abductees” were actually returned almost two decades ago (along with the former US Army traitor Jenkins) and most honest observers recognize that no other Japanese abductees are alive in North Korea. At this point, it is like US POW-MIA in Vietnam thirty years after the war…if they were alive, Vietnam would never admit it after all of these years and the same with the DPRK. But Abe made “abductees” his signature issue during his rise to the top of Japanese politics.

Abe mentions that the handful of “abductees” are more important that denuclearization and ballistic missiles for Japan. This is not surprising as the Bush Administration discovered Japan made the “abductee” issue the main point during DPRK talks over a decade ago, yet here we are again. The US media propagates stories without any sense of history on these subjects.

So, Japan is basing their primary national interest in historic DPRK negotiations on “abductees” from the 1970s instead of denuclearization and ballistic missiles. If I remember correctly during the Bush denuclearization negotiations with the DPRK, Condi Rice told Japan to “get out of the way” with the ridiculous instance on this very nationalistic issue of “abductees.” In other words, Japan wanted a veto, based on the most flimsy grounds, on any Korea deal…what has changed over the years??

And I checked several times. Fox carried this for 40 min in the 6:00 PM time slot—and so did CNN.
P45 basically told the whole nation the Russia investigation was a hoax set up by the Democrats as a reaction to losing an election they never expected to lose, and that it was a hoax because there never was any collusion. (Little bits at a time to the public, or at least to the lefties)

meant to post this here, but i couldn’t find this thread a few minutes ago

WOW! i needed that…
Donald Trump the MASTER. Like a BOSS
IMO The President’s press conference with Abe was by far the most COMMANDING he’s ever done. He TOYED with the dopey media – SCALDED THEM.
In that respect, it reminded me of that classic when he was In transition in Trump tower and sent acosta to his room – “not you, you’re FAKE NEWS”
Definitely made me laugh out loud a few times yesterday ‘O’
The format at Mare-a-Lago was excellent, and BOTH he and Shinzo handled the clown questions with absolute grace and ease. And his ultra relaxed composure and no nonsense simply honest responses, made the thug puppet media look silly!